Month: June 2010

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office releases the following sexual offender information pursuant to ORS 181.507 & OAR 291-28-38. These statutes authorize the release of such information when it will enhance the public’s safety and protection. William Michael Althouse was convicted and served sentences totaling more than 12 years in prison for felony Sexual Abuse I, Burglary I and Sodomy I. These offenses require sex offender registration with law enforcement. Althouse’s criminal history places him in a classification level which reflects the potential to re-offend. He has a history of exhibition, and exposing himself, as well sexually offending minor children that are both known and unknown to him. Althouse was granted supervision with the following restrictions: no contacts with minors (male or female), required participation in sexual offender treatment, no use of alcohol and submission to polygraph testing. Althouse was on GPS monitoring, but he cut off his GPS ankle bracelet and failed to report to his Parole Officer. He is now wanted. His last known location was the area of Locust St. NE and Cherry Ave. in Salem around 12:30 pm on 06/29/10. Althouse is known to frequent wooded parks and likes to loiter around the riverfront area. He methodically plans his offending behaviors and should be considered a threat to minor children. Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call 911 or his Parole Officer, Marion County...

Keizer Fire District firefighters rushed to a man’s aid at 6:52 p.m. on Tuesday, June 29. The homeowner had been cooking dinner when he stopped to use the bathroom. While in the bathroom he heard his smoke alarm sounding. He opened the bathroom door to investigate and found heavy smoke and flames. He quickly shut the door to prevent further smoke from entering the small bathroom. The homeowner called 911 and began kicking his way through the drywall into another room. When the man attempted to exit thru the hole he became stuck on the drywall and studs. Firefighters arrived at the scene to find no visible smoke or flames showing. Upon opening the front door they were greeted by heavy smoke, but no flames. Crawling to the rear the house they saw the glow of fire. Firefighter/paramedic Christina Johnson began extinguishment of the fire while her partner firefighter/paramedic Greg Biben searched for the homeowner. Biben found the man in the bathroom stuck in the wall with this head thru to another room. Biben quickly joined the homeowner in the bathroom and shut the door to prevent the homeowner from breathing more smoke. Biben pulled more drywall from around the homeowner and pushed him through the wall to safety. The homeowner then proceeded to exit the home the rest of the way on his own. Johnson extinguished the fire...

By JASON COX Of the Keizertimes Keizer’s top cop is questioning whether the current city tax rate will be enough to meet growing police needs in the city. Police Chief Marc Adams described the quandary thusly: “I see a need for the department to grow staff-wise to be able to meet our mission,” Adams said. “But I also see a problem of, ‘How do you pay for it?’” “With our low tax rate, it’s darn near impossible to operate a police department the city needs,” he added. “No matter how efficient you get, eventually you’re just not going to be able to do it.” He noted Measure 5, passed in 1990, had a role in limiting the department’s revenue options. And he acknowledged that a public safety levy, in the midst of a recession, would be unpalatable. “People can vote to go outside that tax rate, but in this economy right now no one can afford to do that,” Adams said. “That’s why we’re applying for every grant.” And in an opinion piece by Councilor Jim Taylor published in last week’s Keizertimes, he wrote that “the city cannot continue to provide the same or more services without asking the citizens to pay more for them. “We have now come to a point in our history that we are going to have to decide whether we want a lesser level...

Ask us a question about just about anything and we’ll find the answer. This week we checked with two popular hamburger chains to see if Keizer locations may be in their future. If there’s one thing Keizer doesn’t lack, it’s restaurants featuring hamburgers. But two chains – one a Northwest mainstay and the other a newcomer to the area – have gotten attention from our readers. Sarah G. asked us via Facebook when we might expect a Burgerville, and Paul N. is wondering if Five Guys Burgers and Fries is considering Keizer. A caveat: It’s important to understand that, in any leasing situation, changes can happen rather quickly, or negotiations can stall for years at a time. We get all the official sources we can before putting forth an answer, but it is hardly an exact science. First, let’s answer the question about the chain that’s a relative newcomer to the area. Five Guys consists of both franchised and corporate-run stores, and was founded in Virginia in 1986. It boasts more than 500 locations 35 U.S. states and in Canada, and recently opened its first Salem-area location on Lancaster Drive. The style is known in the restaurant business as fast casual – little or no table service, but it’s not quite fast food either. Molly Catalano, a spokesperson for Five Guys, told us the only planned new Oregon location...

By JASON COX Of the Keizertimes Keizer’s own Matthew McCollum has always had an interest in the outside world around him. Now thanks in part to a five-year $150,000 fellowship from the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, he’ll get a boost in passing on that curiosity to the next generation. McCollum is a 2005 McNary alumnus who holds a physics degree from Linfield College. He will be attending the University of Alabama-Birmingham in the fall to obtain a master’s degree in education, and is currently working as a research technician in the university’s pathology department. He grew up attending Keizer schools, going to Gubser Elementary and Whiteaker Middle before moving on up to McNary. “Growing up I always excelled in science, and I really loved it,” he said. His interest was sparked by the outside world, he said – a curiosity about nearly everything. “At such a young age, I wouldn’t even call it science,” McCollum said. “I didn’t think of it as a subject. “… I was fascinated with water and how you could put it in a bottle and freeze it, and the water bottle would explode. I was always in my back yard just kind of discovering things. He credited two former McNary teachers in particular for encouraging him in his interests. “My freshman year, with (Gary) Miller, we did something called the sludge test where they gave us...